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Despite what hours spent playing Grand Theft Auto has taught us, the fact is that cars are just not meant to be jumped. Given that they typically weigh upwards of 3000 lbs this should be obvious, but in case there’s a steep ramp somewhere near your house that looks like an ideal launching point, maybe checking out the following videos will serve as a useful warning.

Held this past Sunday, the 2008 X Games rally finals promised to take off-road racing to a new and more, well, extreme level, and the action definitely did not disappoint. Featuring top competitors like Tanner Foust, Ken Block, Dave Mirra, and Travis Pastrana, the course at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA featured both on and off-road sections, including two steep ramps, plenty of sharp turns, and of course, a serious jump. All morning various cars tried their luck getting airborne, and with each successive practice run the number needing new radiators, front-end work, and fire extinguishers continued to grow. Race teams at Le Mans and in Formula 1 may have sophisticated pit crews and use the latest equipment to keep their twitchy rides going, but rally teams tend to fix theirs the old-fashioned way — a set of simple tools and everyone pitching in, even the drivers. However in some cases the damage is so great that no amount of work will get a car going again, no matter how high-tech the equipment or good the crew.

Take the experience of driver Andrew Comrie-Picard, known as ACP, in his NOS 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution on Sunday. Many wondered how the 2006 Sno-Drift Rally winner and TV co-host of the Canadian Rally Championship would handle jumping in his Mitsubishi, as according to 2007 X Games gold medalist (and co-host of Top Gear USA) Tanner Foust the Evos are known to be poor jumpers compared to rival racers from Subaru. And sure enough, when it came time for ACP and his co-driver Jen Horsey to make their run against Dave Mirra and Alex Kihurani in a 2007 Subaru WRX STI, the jump proved a problem. At first things looked good for the duo, as Mirra damaged his front axle and had to repeatedly use reverse to go around turns, but then it came time for the Evo to jump. Compared to previous competitors the car looked too low from the beginning, and it just caught the edge of the opposite ramp. But it didn’t catch enough — with the Mitsubishi‘s front-end digging into the dirt, the car tumbled end over end to the bottom, landing right-side up but with its windshield and roof crushed in.

A group from the paddock went running to help as the crowd yelled in shock, but thanks to the rally car’s stout roll cage both ACP and Horsey walked away unhurt, and even gave a live TV interview with ESPN just moments later. The race continued and though Mirra was able to advance and get his car working again, on his next run the jump also proved too much and he lost control on the landing, crashing into an embankment. Ultimately the race came down to Foust and Chrissie Beavis in a 2007 STI against Pastrana and Carolyn Bosley in a 2008 model. This time in spite of its inferior jumping ability, in a close race the 08 Subie managed to prevail, as Pastrana piloted it to take home the gold.

Before the race, most of the drivers noted that while rallying can often lead to some pretty insane driving, most of them didn’t have that much practice flying off hillsides, Dukes of Hazzard-style. So the next time you’re canyon carving and think about hitting a ramp for some stunt-driving action, consider how much trouble a group of pros had doing the same thing — and at least when they trash their rides, there’s extra people to help fix them up again. Check out ACP’s jump here and here, and for info on the 2008 X Games rally check out their Web site.